Portland's most famous homebrewers: Kurt and Rob Widmer were avid homebrewers before they started what's now Oregon's largest brewery. Widmer Brothers Brewing still supports the homebrewing community in many ways including the Collaborator project, which scales up homebrew recipes to commecial quantities and donates much of the proceeds to brewing scholarships.

Saturday's Big Brew Celebrates National Homebrew Day

by John Foyston

This Saturday, thousands of homebrewers around the country celebrate their hobby and National Homebrew Day at Big Brew, where they'll --- you guessed it --- brew beer.

Hundreds of bars, breweries, shops and clubs all over the country will host their local communities to brew on-site for a nation-wide brewing session sponsored by the American Homebrewing Assn. There'll be classes, barbecues, lots of beer talk and a nationwide simultaneous toast --- we'll want a breakfast beer in our glasses, because it

Big Brew gatherings around the country will range from a few friends to large parties...

happens at Noon CDT --- 10 a.m. out west.

Why celebrate homebrewing, you might ask, especially in a town with more commercial breweries than any other on the planet and hundreds of good beers on shelves and taps? Because almost every professional brewer in Portland and around the country began as an ardent homebrewer.

“I think that it’s accurate to say that craft brewing as we know it wouldn’t exist

Veteran homebrewer Bill Schneller is also among the highest ranked beer judges in the country and firmly believes that brewing your own beer makes you more aware of nuances of flavor, aroma and quality --- a better beer judge, in other words.FoystonFoto

without homebrewers” says Rob Widmer, co-founder of Widmer Brothers Brewing, Oregon's largest brewery. “Kurt and I got our start as homebrewers and I can’t think of a commercial brewer that didn’t brew at home before taking the plunge.

“The most delicious and interesting beer that I drink these days comes from the community of homebrewers. Here in Portland the Oregon Brew Crew is one of the oldest and largest homebrewing clubs in the US --- I still remember meetings in the mid 80’s where it’d be 8 or 10 guys on folding chairs at our local supply house, F.H . Steinbart. Now club meetings host ten times that number and have

Being a homebrewer means you get to wear cool t-shirts, such as Michel Brown's hop-skull shirtFoystonFoto

Brew day: Ted Assur (left), with Oregon Brew Crew, and Josh Huerta collaborate on a batch of home brew in Assur's driveway. Made on sunny, hot July day, the beer will ferment for two weeks, then stay in cold storage before an unveiling in the cool of October. RANDY L. RASMUSSEN/ The Oregonian

hundreds more on the active membership list.”

Both Charlie Papazian and Portlander Fred Eckhardt wrote brewing books that inspired thousands to take up the hobby, but Fred Bowman of Portland Brewing remembers a friend bringing over a British book that got Bowman brewing. “If my friend Jim, with whom I shared many beer experiences, had not come by with Dave Line's book 'Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy,' I don't know that I would have started brewing at home.” Bowman says, “If that had not happened, maybe we wouldn't have started Portland Brewing.”

The AHA reckons that there are more than a million American homebrewers, a hobby that was made legal by the feds in 1978 for the first time since 1919, the start of Prohibition. Even now, with nearly 4,000 commercial breweries and brewpubs in the U.S., homebrewers are the leading edge of the brewing world, able to innovate and take chances with ingredients and styles that professional brewers simply can't do.

“Even a small pub system of five barrels means that if you make a mistake, you're dumping 155 gallons of beer,” says systems engineer Bill Schneller, who's been a homebrewer since 1998. “If I make a mistake, I dump five gallons of beer --- and I don't have to tell anyone.”

Schneller, who's also one of just more than 100 master beer judges in the country, doesn't make many mistakes these days. The worst kind are the mistaken concepts, he says, such as the time he and a friend thought a Belgian-style witbier --- normally light, spicy and pale enough to be called a white beer --- would be great if made with a lot of rye instead of just malted barley.

“You think, 'how come nobody else thought of this,' he says, “then you make it and find out why.” Not only did all that rye end up as a stuck mash, the wheat protein gave the beer a thick, chewy mouthfeel --- exactly wrong for a witbier --- and made it cloudy and amber. But those are rare occurrences, says Schneller, who brews about 25 batches a year, and used to brew even more --- he once kept ten kegs on tap in his home beer cooler. “If I wasn't successful most of the time, why would I bother? Especially here in Portland.”

“The great thing about homebrewing is that you can make exactly the beers you want, without commercial constraints,” says Schneller, who has about 100 gallons of Belgian-style lambics aging in his garage. “I happen to like lower-alcohol beers such as English milds, beers of 3 and 4 percent alcohol that probably wouldn't sell here. I also make historical recreations of beers such as a Victorian imperial brown stout and my favorite beer, a Burton Ale, which is amber to brown with a fruity aroma.”

Needless to say, you could comb the coolers of even the best bottle shop and likely not find a commercial version of Burton Ale.

Saturday's Big Brew is definitely open to beginning homebrewers and those who are thinking of taking up the hobby, and it'll be a great place to talk beer and brewing with experienced brewers. Here are some of Schneller's observations that might be of use to those thinking of beginning:

If you don't like to cook, you likely won't like brewing: “You're around pots of boiling water and flames for most of the brew day, so it helps if you have some cooking experience.”

Don't homebrew to save money: You won't at first, depending on how much equipment you buy. Schneller has bought a lot of gear over the years, but figures he can make a couple of cases of good beer for about $20 these days.

It takes a lot of beer to make a lot of beer: Homebrewers often work together to ease the burden of a brew day, and that often means having sampling some --- OK, several --- beers. This can affect planning, Schneller says, often in critical areas such as ensuring you have enough ingredients or propane on hand.

Join a homebrew club: think of it as a support group for brewers, a place to talk about problems and triumphs --- and to try other brewers' beers.

Brewing is a joy, bottling isn't: think instead of kegging your beer, that way you only have to wash one keg, not dozens of bottles.

Read a good book: Charlie Papazian's “The Joy of Homebrewing” is a classic, but Schneller likes “Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide,” which has solid recipes and a chapter that tells the first-time brewer what to do with that homebrew kit he or she just bought.

Relax and have a homebrew: “It's just beer --- you're probably not going to take it to a competition; you probably aren't going to drink it with serious beer geeks; you'll share it with your friends who'll say, 'wow, I can't believe you made this...'”